Meditation: Example

Example.

1. Bad example has damned more souls than all the saints together were ever able to save. Were the gates of hell to be laid open, scarcely could any one be found that would not say: It is such or such a one that has damned me. What a reproach! We are commanded to love our enemies; why then should we destroy souls, who have never done us an injury? A man who has been unfortunate enough to ruin souls, redeemed by the blood of a God, has much cause to fear for his salvation. What can we reasonably hope from Jesus Christ after having torn from Him what He has so dearly purchased?

2. O fathers and mothers, who do not live as Christians ought to do, it were far better for your children that they had not been born! You have given them life only to put them to death -- to that dreadful death which is eternal! When they shall require of you the heaven they have lost, what will you be able to answer them?

3. Let us clothe ourselves with Jesus Christ, according to the words of the Apostle. Let His conduct, His virtue and His spirit shine forth in us, so that He may be remembered when we are seen. We contribute not less to our neighbor's salvation by an edifying life, than to his damnation by a scandalous one.

[Be very careful to do nothing that may scandalize your neighbor, and humbly beg pardon of God for the sins you have occasioned.]

Woe to that man bv whom scandal cometh. St. Matt. XVII. 7.

The scandalous sinner must answer for the crimes which his bad example hath caused to be committed. Salvian.